Mark Brooks fired a six-under
64 Friday to grab a share of the lead during the second round of the U.S. Open.
Retief Goosen, who led after the first round was completed Friday morning, and
PGA Tour journeyman J.L. Lewis joined Brooks at four-under 136.
Friday's second-round action
was suspended due to darkness with several players remaining on the course. They
will return Saturday at 8 a.m. (et) to complete their rounds before the 36-hole
cut will be made.
Defending champion Tiger
Woods will have to stage a huge comeback if he is to win his fifth consecutive
major championship. He posted a one-over 71 in the second round and is nine shots
behind the leaders at five-over 145.
"Sometimes, things just
don't go your way," said Woods, who blew away the field by 15 last year at Pebble
Beach. "There's nothing you can do about it. Sometimes, you've just got to laugh
at yourself."
Sergio Garcia and Stewart
Cink are tied for fourth at two-under par, but the big names waiting to pounce
are the pair tied for sixth. Phil Mickelson and David Duval, the players who briefly
flirted with the lead during Woods' run at the Masters in April, are knotted at
one-under after each posted 69s on Friday.
Brooks opened with a birdie
at the first when his approach rolled up to within inches of the hole. He birdied
four of his next five to go out with a front-nine 30.
The 1996 PGA Champion hit
some loose shots on the second nine, missing the cup by 30 feet with his approaches
at 12, 15 and 16. At the difficult closing hole, Brooks dumped his second into
a greenside bunker from the right rough. He blasted out to 10 feet and rolled
home the par save for a 64, the lowest round at a U.S. Open staged at Southern
Hills.
"Was I trying to make it?
Yes," Brooks said. "Did I care if I made it? I was trying to make sure I didn't
three-putt, to be honest with you."
Brooks played the remainder
of his first round Friday morning as rain soaked the course Thursday afternoon,
forcing a good part of the field to complete their opening rounds in the early
hours.
"I'm glad it's over," said
Brooks, who matched the lowest second-round score in U.S. Open history. "It was
nice this morning. Twenty-seven [holes] basically is not too tough for us."
Goosen took sole possession
of the lead with a seven-foot birdie at 13, but dropped a shot at the next hole
when he failed to get up and down out of a bunker. The 32-year-old once again
took the outright lead with a two-foot birdie at 17. He ran into trouble at 18
when he missed his 208-yard approach left of the green, then chipped to six feet
but failed to make the par putt.
"I'm getting a bit nervous
out there, that's for sure," said Goosen, who posted 70.
Lewis, who has never had
even a piece of the lead after 36 holes in his PGA Tour career, made two early
birdies at three and a 15-footer at four. Two holes later he added a birdie, but
dropped a shot at eight after he ran his 35-foot birdie try six feet past the
hole.
Lewis pulled his eight-foot
birdie try at nine but rebounded with a 20-foot birdie at 10. He dropped a shot
at 12 when his eight-foot par save lipped out.
The 1999 John Deere Classic
champion scrambled for par at 18 after he drilled his 40-foot birdie bid about
10 feet past the hole. He made the comeback putt and posted his second straight
68.
Lewis' attitude may be
what is driving him to share the lead near the midpoint of the U.S. Open, but
it also what is keeping it all in perspective.
"It's obviously a major
and it's important, but it is a golf tournament, right?" said Lewis. "I don't
mean to downplay it or discount it or anything. But this is a golf tournament.
It's a big one, but it's a golf tournament.
"Leads and that sort of
thing probably aren't going to matter until late on Sunday," he said. "If you've
got a lead with two or three holes to go, then maybe that's going to matter."
Woods made a pair of eight-foot
par saves at two and three in his second round but dropped a shot at the fourth
when he struggled to get out of a greenside bunker. He three-putted the next green
for another bogey and did not card his first birdie until No. 12.
The defending champion
laid up at the par-five 13th but ran home a 10 footer for his second consecutive
birdie. At 16, Woods missed the green short and pitched to 10 feet, where he two-putted
for bogey.
Woods missed a 10-foot
birdie opportunity at the last and had to settle for a one-over 71.
"I'm trying as hard as
I can," Woods said. "Sometimes, things don't go your way, and that's the way things
go."
At one point, it looked
Woods might be in danger of missing his first cut since the 1997 Canadian Open,
but it seems safe that the world's number one will be around on the weekend.
Fifty-six-year-old Hale
Irwin, tied for second place at the start of the second round, struggled to a
five-over 75 Friday and is tied for 16th at two-over par.
Jim Furyk carded his second
even-par 70 in as many days and shares eighth place with Rocco Mediate, who is
through 13 holes and Matt Gogel, who has played 12.
